Conventional pill bottles are generally made of plastic and have a hollow body with a neck at the top thereof. A shoulder is generally formed at the juncture of the neck and body which forms a ridge inside the bottle that can make it very difficult to remove a single pill from the bottle. For example, when the bottle is slowly tilted, the pills get hung up on the ridge until all of a sudden there is a rush of pills. The ridge also interferes with inserting a finger into the bottle and drawing a single pill along the surface because the pill is caught by the ridge which will not allow it to slide out.
Dispensing a pill from a container should be a quick and simple process. However, for those persons afflicted with arthritis or some other debility, removing a single pill from a bottle is a recurring ordeal. These people do not necessarily have the manual dexterity to shake the bottle just right to cause a single pill or the desired number of pills to fall out into the palm of their hand. This is a particular problem because people who have these afflictions are generally prescribed more medications than an average person.
Some prior art devices show pill bottles with mechanical dispensers such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,638,830 to Belokin and U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,313 to Jennings et al. Belokin shows a container with a two piece rotating top that dispenses medication one unit at a time. Jennings et al. shows a container having a rotating spherical dispensing element with a recess at the top thereof to dispense pills out of the container. These prior art devices require a certain precision in manufacturing to operate properly which tends to make the devices somewhat expensive. Also, the devices can only effectively dispense a limited range of pill sizes.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 190,056 and 277,363 to Diamond and Drummond et al., respectively, show container designs with bulging side walls, and which have shoulder portions which form ridges near the neck of the container. It does not appear that these containers relate to containers for pills, and in any event the ridge, as discussed above, would interfere with easy dispensing of pills.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,362,530 to Johnson shows a receptacle and dispenser comprising a bottle with sleeve portions therein holding tablets in a coin stack to prevent the tablets from striking one another and breaking. Johnson suffers the drawback that the sleeve portions tend to add expense to the container. It is also noted that the sleeve portions have to be appropriately sized for the tablets, therefore, Johnson can only handle a limited size of tablets.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,964,609 and 4,262,802 to Perrella and Laauwe, respectively, disclose dispensing containers that have a lid member and a closure for the lid member. In each of Perrella and Laauwe the lid member effectively provides a ridge or lip that would interfere with the easy dispensing of a pill.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a pill bottle for easily dispensing one or more pills and which avoids the disadvantages of the prior art bottles as noted above.
It is a more particular object of the present invention to provide a simple and inexpensive pill bottle for easily dispensing one or more pills of all sizes by reaching into the container with a finger and easily slidably withdrawing one or more pills out along an inside wall.